History is always written by the victors.

After the end of the first phase of Operation Houxi, the astonishing pace of the Allied advance was abruptly curtailed. The American GIs seemed to have suddenly opened their minds and became capable of fighting!

In the offensive and defensive battles of the Sheila River and Phoenix City on the southern front, General MacArthur, who insisted on not retreating to the rear, commanded the US Army to push the battle line across the Sheila River under the strong counterattack of the Air Force, forcing the Allies to retreat more than 30 kilometers and almost retreat through Mexico. This was one of the few battles in North America at the end of 1943 that could be praised by the Americans. MacArthur also retained his position as commander-in-chief of the West Coast Theater.

The Allied Central Army on the Southern Front at Nogales was dominated by the Youzhou Army and the Dongying 2nd Army under the command of General Wang Tiehan, as well as some Mexican troops, with a total strength of 400,000. On 11 November, the general offensive of Operation "Hou Xi" began, and the artillery division of the Youzhou Regiment fired more than 10,000 shells at the US positions on the US-Mexico border within two hours. In the plan, the goal of the Youzhou Corps was to directly take MacArthur's headquarters in Phoenix, and disrupt the communications and command of the US forces in the west.

To this end, the Royal Air Force sent two flying divisions to fight in conjunction with the Youzhou Legion. One hundred and sixty "Weilong" ground attack planes of various models will help the armored forces to deal with the heavy tanks of the US army first.

However, it is obvious that His Majesty the Emperor of Han, who personally served as the commander-in-chief of the "Hou Xi" operation, and the entire Allied Command, including Ye Shuai, Yun Shuai and others, have somewhat underestimated the combat capability of the US Air Force.

Marshall, former general staff officer of the US military, pointed out as early as two years ago: Once the multinational force loses in Africa, then the next battle must be the defense of Great Britain and the defense of North America!

Although Marshall's position in the U.S. military plummeted after Roosevelt's death, his outstanding strategic vision still made the "defense of North America" talk attract the attention of the White House and Congress.

Therefore, even in the Great Britain battlefield, the embarrassment of the multinational force not having air supremacy is embarrassing again and again, but the United States still has not continued to reinforce Europe with its navy and air force.

"Dead friends, don't die poor!" Americans understand this phrase better. Moreover, after the African campaign, the US fighter reserve did not decrease but increased. After obtaining British radar, helmet-aiming and other technologies, a number of American fighters were quickly put into production. F-107 Ultimate Sabre, F-108 Light, F110 Mithra......

The performance of these advanced fighters was assessed by the US Air Force as "basically catching up with and partially surpassing the current main combat fighters of the Han Army." But the Americans did not make a big show about the increase in the combat power of their air force, but continued to intensify the production of these fighters, silently accumulating strength for the upcoming defense of the homeland.

The Dahan MI5 also made a key report on the new American fighter planes before the war, but perhaps His Majesty was overconfident in the air force fleet produced by the base that was several generations ahead of history, and this information did not attract enough attention from Wei Qingge.

It was not until after the start of the "Hou Xi" operation that the US Air Force did not play a big role in the landing campaign due to the existence of the "Spinosaurus" second-generation early warning aircraft. But three weeks later, into December, the U.S. Air Force finally began to gain momentum. In particular, in the Battle of the Hilla River, the struggle for air supremacy between the two sides entered a white-hot stage. In particular, the United States' air-to-air missile slimming project has achieved great results, and the successful development of the AIM-120 "Prison" medium-range air-to-air missile has enabled the US Air Force to achieve an out-of-sight strike capability after the Royal Air Force.

AIM-120 Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM)

Manufacturer: Raytheon-Hughes Aircraft Manufacturing Co., Ltd

Length: 3. 65 meters

Projectile body diameter: 17. 8 cm

Wingspan: 63 cm

Launch weight: 157 kg

Warhead: 22 kg of high-explosive penetration

Guidance: semi-active radar in the middle information + active guidance of the terminal radar

Range: 48 km (effective range)

Maximum firing range: 90 km

Flight speed: 3. Mach 5

Terminal radar active guidance, 3. The flight speed of Mach 5, this is what the US Air Force assessment force called "basically catching up with and partially surpassing the Han army." The performance of the "Prison" medium-range air-to-air missile is almost the same as that of the "Fire Phoenix" of Dahan, and it is far smaller than the "Fire Phoenix" in weight and specifications, which makes the AIM-120 do not need to be carried by heavy fighters like the "Fire Phoenix", which weighs more than 400 kilograms. The F110 Mithra or even the F-11 Tiger can carry 6 or 4 prisons.

The direct consequence of the emergence of the "prison" is that the US Air Force has suddenly changed from being passively beaten to being able to wrestle with the Royal Air Force outside the line of sight. Moreover, in addition to the dispatch of heavy "Raptor" fighters, other fighters of the Royal Air Force, including the Navy's J-15 "Eagle", also suffered from a sharp reduction in combat effectiveness because the "Sparrow" missiles were shorter than the "Prison".

What made the Royal Air Force even more embarrassing was that the Americans received the radar and helmet-sight technology on the British "Lightning" fighters, and in this regard, the Americans were even ahead of the Royal Air Force. At the Red Alert base, the helmet sight that combines the pilot's helmet with the sighting device is only in the testing stage, and in the entire empire, only the test pilots at the Jiaozhou Royal Air Force test flight site have just brought this new guy and are groping for use.

The advent of helmet-mounted sights has made it possible for US pilots to take the lead in combat and track and launch missiles more quickly after discovering targets. Even with the support of AWACS aircraft, the Royal Air Force did not take advantage of any advantage in the air battle over the Hira River.

This is also the first time since the establishment of the Royal Han Air Force that the battle loss rate is higher than 1 in an air battle. In other words, in the air battle over the Hilla River, the number of Royal Air Force fighters shot down even exceeded that of the US military. On the first day of the battle, dozens of "Weilong" planes were shot down by US fighters that suddenly appeared on the ground targets.

The battle situation in the air disrupted the Allied plans for a quick breakthrough. After receiving the air force battle report, General Wang Tiehan was obviously underprepared. Instead of being hit by air power as expected, the U.S. tank cluster collided violently with Allied tanks on the south bank of the Hira River.

The fighting began to rage, and the American GIs, after an initial period of confusion, began to return to their normal fighting standards. After all, the weapons in their hands are not much behind the Han army.

On the battlefield of defending the homeland and the country, the strength of any country and any nation should not be underestimated.

In the Tucson Siege and Annihilation Battle, the 2nd Army Corps, which forced six divisions of American troops to lay down their arms, successfully pulled up the hatred value. MacArthur's most elite U.S. 9th Panzer Division was the first to break through on the right flank. Nearly 60,000 troops were cut off from the main forces by Pershing tanks along the ridge, and both Allied and American forces were quickly deployed in this zone.

MacArthur vowed to "kill these Japanese monkeys and avenge the siege of the American forces in Tucson." ”

And General Tiehan, the king of the Youzhou Army, of course, would not allow the first defeat of the Allies after entering the United States to occur in his own middle route army.

Most of the troops of the 2nd Army Corps were composed of Japanese soldiers who surrendered on the Chinese battlefield, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. Although they were divided by the US armor, the fighting spirit of the Japanese army did not diminish in the slightest, and in order to resist the US tanks, they deployed their defenses in depth and echelons, holding the narrow area between the Sheila River and Mount Arbenson, so as to reduce the pressure of the US tank cluster to the greatest extent.

Anti-tank infantry guns, rocket launchers equipped with armor-piercing shells...... The Allied forces that landed in North America, after the Reich had made adequate preparations, did not lack anti-armor weapons. By the end of 1943, armor and anti-armor had become the main theme of army battles.

In particular, after Marshal Ye Weixun became the chief of the general staff of the Imperial Army, he systematically summed up his experience in fighting the Soviet army in Siberia, synthesized the use of armored forces in the German-Soviet battlefield and the African battlefield, and compiled a "Manual of Infantry Anti-Armor" and distributed it to various units of the Imperial Army to guide the infantry army in the operation of the enemy's armored forces.

Although Dongying's troops did not give priority to anti-tank equipment and timely innovation of tactical ideas as the Imperial Thirteenth Army, the army building ideas of all colonial troops in the Empire were consistent with those of the Imperial Army and closely followed the pace of reform of the Imperial Army.

Such precautions undoubtedly made this Dongying unit not panic too much in the face of the attack of the US army's armored forces. With the right tactics and sophisticated equipment, the divided Allies were able to break through only a section of their position with tank clusters by the U.S. 9th Panzer Division, and then the Allies organized an effective defense. There was even an anti-tank gun team, which destroyed twelve M4 Sherman medium tanks at a bend in the ridge, until they had exhausted all their shells and safely retreated to their positions.

Furious, MacArthur ordered the air force to strike at Allied positions. However, the U.S. Air Force, equipped with the AIM-120, did not fully control the skies along the U.S.-Mexico border, and after the air battle on the Hira River, Marshal Yun Jiu, commander of the Hawaiian Air Force, quickly adjusted his tactics. The "Raptor" fighters of an entire pilot division appeared at several airfields close to Mexico's borders, and in each of the three northern provinces of Mexico, as many as 22 "Spinosaurus" early warning planes maintained 24-hour round-the-clock patrols.

The "Raptor" fighter "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang" has a longer strike distance to deal with the "Prison" medium-range air-to-air missile, which can also be "locked and shot down."

The "remote control" tactic played a great role in the air stalemate in the second phase of the "Hou Xi" plan. The US airstrike plan, under the long-range sniping of the Royal Air Force at any cost, was similarly aborted.

The decisive victory in the Battle of the Hira River unwittingly returned to the Army. It's just that the allies, who have become accustomed to air superiority, will have to adjust their tactics.

General Wang Tiehan sent a telegram to His Majesty the Emperor of Han: In the case of losing absolute air superiority, our army's armored forces must be reorganized, strengthen the group size of the armored forces, and quickly break through the US defense line with armored forces. Otherwise, our army will be dragged into a protracted war of attrition.